- 14 yachts were seized by Dutch authorities, the Netherlands' government said on Wednesday.
- 12 of the yachts were still being built, while two are undergoing maintenance, a minister said.
- The vessels can't be delivered, transferred or exported under sanctions, he added.
A total of 14 yachts were seized by Dutch customs authorities as part of sanctions against Russia, the government of the Netherlands said on Wednesday, Agence-France Presse (AFP) first reported.
Of the 14 vessels, 12 were still under construction across five shipyards in the Netherlands for Russian beneficiaries, foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a 10-page letter to the Dutch parliament, translated into English by AFP.
The other two yachts were undergoing maintenance, the government said, per AFP.
"Given the current measures, these vessels cannot be delivered, transferred or exported for the moment," Hoekstra said in the letter, cited in AFP.
The letter didn't disclose who owns the yachts and said that authorities were investigating the matter further. The shipyards were made aware of the status of the yachts, Hoekstra added.
Hoekstra said in the letter that the people linked to the yachts weren't on the EU sanctions lists but the government was looking into the possibility of one yacht having connections with a Russian oligarch who has been sanctioned by the union, AFP reported.
The government of the Netherlands didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
No superyachts are anchored in the Netherlands but they are being built there, Hoekstra said in the letter.
Major ship manufacturers, such as Heesen and Oceanco, which have built superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs, come from the Netherlands. For example, the $120 million superyacht owned by Igor Sechin which was seized in France last month was made by Oceanco.
Heesen built the Galactica Super Nova owned by Vagit Alekperov, which lost tracking signals after leaving a port in Montenegro.
Hoekstra also said in the letter that the Netherlands had so far frozen 516 million euros in assets and 155 million euros in transactions.